Flak Cannon
The Flak Cannon is a weapon in the ''Unreal'' series. It is present in all Unreal games with the exception of Unreal II: The Awakening. __TOC__ Overview In general, the primary fire launches flak shell shards, and the secondary fire launches a flak shell bomb. The primary differences between the Flak Cannon's incarnations are the damage it causes, the number of times the flak shards bounce, and the distance the flak bomb flies. Across all the games, several key components of the Flak Cannon remain the same. Mainly, all Flak Cannons have a "bumblebee yellow" coloration, slight wear, and the fact of the flak shell always visible. Unreal and Return to Na Pali In Unreal, it was the replacement for the Quadshot. It had one metal extension connecting the weapon together. Unreal Tournament ;Classification : Heavy Shrapnel ;Primary Fire :White hot chunks of scrap metal spray out in a wide spread. (8 shrapnels shoot out per shot, each does 24 damage) ;Secondary Fire :A flak grenade is launched out of the gun with a high arc, which will inflict 105 damage on impact in its center with an explosion and spawning 5 flak shrapnels. ;Tactics :The Flak Cannon is useful for close combat situations as well as bouncing around corners. In Unreal Tournament, this weapon acts (and has always acted) as a close-combat weapon. Visually, 2 connectors are used, along with a lighter shade of yellow. The Flak Cannon is one easy weapon to shred your enemies at close quarters. The primary fire launches linear shrapnels that can deplete any armor and kill the target with a single, or a maximum of 2 hits. The secondary fire hurls a chunk of molten metal at mid-range, which provides splash damage enough to kill one or two players. The secondary fire can also be useful to shoot enemies sitting behind cover. With an ammo capacity of 50, this weapon is handy in a Deathmatch, but need not to be, as in Assault matches. Unreal Championship and Unreal Tournament 2003/2004 ;Primary Fire :White hot chunks of scrap metal are sprayed forth, shotgun style. The chunks glow as they do in UT, but they also create a trail of yellow behind all the chunks, making it easier to see. The damage they do goes down over their flight time, but a point-blank shot is extremely deadly. This fire mode fires 9 shards that do 13 damage each. ;Secondary Fire :A grenade full of shrapnel is lobbed at the enemy, spraying shrapnel in all directions upon detonating. If you're lucky some of the shards it sprays upon detonation will hit your enemies, causing further damage. This means that sometimes you can kill someone with 100 health with a single flak shell even though the shell itself is only supposed to do 90 damage max. The Flak Cannon in UT2003 is very similar to the one of |UT2004. The only difference is that it generally fires faster and has a slightly bigger arc of the alternate fire. It also has more ammo so it wouldn't be out of ammo too soon, keeping in mind the increase of the speed. In UT2004, there's hardly a difference between it and the Flak Cannon in UT99 other than a visual change. It had visible circuitry, a TC-036B decal on the front, and 3 connectors on the weapon. Also, the 'weapon equip" animation was simplified to just a pull-out, with the Flak Shell seemingly always there. Even though not much is known about the Flak Cannon of Unreal Championship, it is supposed to be very similar to the Unreal Tournament 2003 version. Only the appearance differs; it looks like something between Unreal Tournament's Flak Cannon (the 1st person view) and the Unreal Tournament 2003 and Unreal Tournament 2004 model (the 3rd person view) as its back, where the remaining ammo amount was displayed in UT, is left from Unreal Tournament, and the overall looks are updated to be similar to Unreal Tournament 2003 model. Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict ;Primary Fire :Fires shards of flak from a pre-exploded shell. The fragments can bounce off of walls and move slowly, so they are easily reflected. They also glow so they are highly visible. ;Secondary Fire :A grenade full of shrapnel is lobbed at the enemy, spraying shrapnel in all directions upon detonating. If you're lucky some of the shards it sprays upon detonation will hit your enemies, causing further damage. Difficult to reflect because of it's heavy trajectory. Unreal Tournament 3 ;Primary Fire :White hot chunks of scrap metal are sprayed forth, shotgun style. The chunks glow as they do in UT, but they also create a trail of yellow-red behind all the chunks, making it easier to see. ;Secondary Fire :A grenade full of shrapnel is lobbed at the enemy, spraying shrapnel in all directions upon detonating. If you're lucky some of the shards it sprays upon detonation will hit your enemies, causing further damage. The Flak Cannon returns, and it's just as devastating as ever. It has been upgraded to make it more powerful. It had received the biggest overhaul of the Flak Cannon's visual look, replacing the front component with 4 sub-pieces that expand slightly upon equipping the Flak Cannon, the Flak shell shrinking greatly, and a less rifle-related look on the weapon compared to the previous editions. Unreal Tournament 4 ; Primary fire : Shoots a quick burst of shrapnel that ricochets off of surfaces. Extremely deadly up close and in tight environments, less effective at longer ranges. Beware of backsplash! ; Alternate fire : Lobs an entire shell in a medium range arc. Harder to predict but extremely deadly in direct aspect. If the shell explodes at the environment it causes a shrapnel splash explosion. ; Tips - Shrapnel jumping : Shooting a shell into the ground while close by will propel you upwards. This comes at a large cost to health, so it should be used wisely. The Flak Cannon makes a return in UT4, with an appearance reminiscent to the UT00-era Flak Cannon. The primary fire sprays forth white hot chunks of scrap metal, shotgun style. The secondary fire lobs a grenade full of shrapnel at an opponent, spraying shrapnel in all directions upon detonating. The shards it sprays upon detonation may hit your enemies, causing further damage. Tips and tricks * For more power, do not fire the flak shells at the walls to reflect into enemies, as it makes them weaker and less accurate. Also don't fire from long range, as the pellets get less accurate over time. Just rush up to the enemy, face forwards, and shoot them to death for best results. If you HAVE to kill them from long range you can use the alt fire anyways, remember that in UT3-4 the "grande" one-shots people without a shield in a direct hit. Unreal * Use this on enemies like Titans, Brutes, Skaarj, and even Spinners. Unreal Championship Gallery Flak_Cannon_U1.png|First-person view in Unreal Flak_Cannon.png|First-person view in Unreal Tournament Ut2-flak-cannon_mini.jpg|First-person view in UT2003/''UT2004'' Flak_cannon.jpg|Promo art for Unreal Tournament 3 Ar_flakcannon.jpg|Secret Flak Cannon in Unreal Flakcan.jpg Uc2-flakcannon-conceptart.jpg|Concept art for Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict !UT3-ConceptArt-FlakCannon-2.jpg|UT3 Concept Art !UT3-GameRender-FlakCannon.jpg|UT3 Promotional Render Unreal Tournament Flak cannon guide|UT4 Flak Cannon guide !UT99-PS2-Weapon-FlakCannon.jpg|''Unreal Tournament'' concept art Trivia * With the absence of the Ripper from UT2003 and UT2004, the Flak Cannon's primary firing mode was given an extra boost in its reflective physical properties. * According to information in Unreal Championship 2, the Flak Cannon was first employed against humans during the suppression of the Green's World Rebellion in 2267. * According to Jack Porter, the game's AI was punishing on lower difficulty levels when holding the gun, so Steven Polge came with the idea of them firing few Flak pieces."The Longevity of Unreal Tournament, Part 4" @ EpicGames External links and references See also